"Remind Me" is a 1940 song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields.
The song was originally written in 1936 for the unproduced Universal film Riviera, which was based on the Earl Derr Biggers novel Love Insurance. Years later, the novel was re-adapted for the film One Night in the Tropics (1940), and the same Kern and Fields score was used. The film was widely regarded as a flop, although it marked the movie debut of Abbott and Costello. The song was introduced in an early scene by Peggy Moran (who was dubbed by an unknown singer) and was virtually thrown away in the film. Only one commercial recording from 1940 can be traced: that by Leo Reisman and his Orchestra (Victor 27237). It was not a hit.
The song was revived in the late 1940s by Mabel Mercer, who used it in her nightclub act, and it has subsequently been recorded by a number of prominent singers. It was included in the 1986 Broadway musical revue Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood and in the stage musical Never Gonna Dance, which opened on Broadway in 2003, where it was sung by Nancy Lemenager and Noah Racey.
Notable recordings:
- Tony Bennett – With Love (1972)
- June Christy – Off-Beat (1960)
- Doris Day and André Previn – Duet (1962)
- Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook (1963)
- Peggy Lee – Pretty Eyes (1960)
- Julie London – Sophisticated Lady (1962)
- Nina Simone – Gifted & Black (1970)
